The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) is responsible for providing guidance, training and support to local and national stop smoking service providers. Their latest briefing on the subject of electronic cigarettes offers a huge slap in the face to outspoken opponents of harm reduction such as Martin McKee. . .

I know, I know, ex-smokers are always the worst but FFS! a product which helps people avoid the worst carcinogens of tobacco whilst still getting their nicotine fix is being targeted by the EUrocrats for the simple reason that it is depleting tobacco taxation without providing matching taxation elsewhere.

I wrote a little piece last week on the history of The Tobacco Wars. Reading back on it I realised it was getting a little confusing even to me, and I wrote the damn thing. Maybe I should try to simplify things?

OK. First of all we had the Kingdom of Pharma, where the people were very jealous and greedy. They would do anything for cash, and such minor trivialities as morals were of no consequence. They made their income by enslaving people from other kingdoms in the name of their religion – Health.

….Does he agree with me that pharmaceutical industry lobbying may be behind the attempt to regulate these products too heavily and possibly to shackle them with an excise tax? Could he give a Department of Health estimate of the size of the black market that is likely to result from this directive and whether or not it will result in people going back to smoking….?

I have just come back from a visit to a local business that produces vaping products. We will be voting soon on the Public Health Bill that proposes to ban the use of vaping products in certain public places. The Welsh Liberal Democrats and I are opposed to these measures as we do not believe that they are evidence-based.

When vapers discuss safety issues, they usually take into account the components of e-liquid and the composition of the aerosol inhaled. Of course this is the most important subject, but we should also be aware of metals of which the coils are made….

On Friday, March 3rd, the California Assembly voted to pass a pair of bills, SBX2-5 and SBX2-7, which raises the age to purchase both cigarettes and vapor products to 21 and bizarrely redefine vapor products, including hardware, as tobacco. But there’s more – it ensures California vets will keep smoking.

In a bit of good news for readers, I realized that I have several posts that I have conceived or that are even mostly drafted that I had been suppressing when CASAA published this blog (either due to the legal problems that might arise from CASAA’s nonprofit status for discussing partisan politics, or because of CASAA’s aversion to disagreeing with anyone who is pro-ecig). I will be trickling those out, though not at the pace I kept up in the CASAA days.

And in Erie County Would Prevent Pharmacies from Selling Some Smoking Cessation Products – The rest of the Story

Both bills purport to ensure that pharmacies do not sell unhealthy tobacco products that are inconsistent with their health mission. However, both bills define tobacco products in such a way that they include electronic cigarettes. Thus, pharmacies in Massachusetts and Erie County could no longer sell e-cigarettes to smokers trying to quit if this legislation is enacted.